The Greatest (Final-est) Update of All!

The previous update was almost 11 months ago and for that, I'm sorry. The only excuse I have is that I promised that update was the second-to-last, and I can be weird about stuff like that.

Is this it? Is the Kickstarter over?

Yep! This is what I'm going to cover in this thoroughly final Kickstarter update:

Audio books for The Great Way

Fate Core supplement for The Great Way and Key/Egg

Are you missing books?

My current work-in-progress

Upcoming Kickstarters(?)

New Twenty Palaces (yeah, you heard that right)

Okay. Tell me about audio books for The Great Way.

Sure thing! When I asked readers for stretch goal ideas, many people said they wanted audio books. Me, I don't know much about format and I decided not to mess around in that area.

But never fear! My agents sold audio book rights to Podium Publishing. They're recording the first book as I write this, and books two and three should follow shortly.

If you're interested in acquiring those audio books, you won't hear that they've been released via Kickstarter update because there won't be any more. The only way to be notified when they go on sale is through my newsletter.Sign up on this page.

What about those Fate Core Supplements?

The Fate Core supplement, The Way into Fate, that combines The Great Way with A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark, is now complete and has been delivered to backers who pledged $30 or more. Don't have it? Check your Kickstarter messages. That was the last thing I'd promised to complete for this Kickstarter, and it's what has brought this campaign to a close.

It's also the reason I'm so late finishing up this project. The file is over 53,000 words and writing for games is extremely dense. Let's just say I found it challenging.

The supplement is largely a world-building document translated (as best I could) into game mechanics. There are bits on the history of the Peradaini Empire, a description of how Marley's "water flowing downhill" magic functions, plus a fifty-page adventure detailing Cimfulin Italga's mission at Shadow Hall.

But wait! The Kickstarter is over but I'm missing some ebooks!

Folks:

Message me through Kickstarter.

I will send you the links you need to download books you're owed. They aren't small files, so I don't want to host them on my site forever, but they're available right now. I'm happy to give you the books you're due. Sending my books to you brings me joy. So let me know if you're missing books.

It's been a year since your last book release. Where's the new one?

My new book, tentatively titled One Man, is almost finished. Well, the first draft, anyway. It's at 125K words and still building to the climax. There's a fair bit of revision to be done, but I plan to send it to my agent pretty soon so she can sell it to a NY publisher.

What if NY publishers reject it, like they did with The Great Way?

Then I guess I'll have to run another campaign.

But if I do have to run another Kickstarter, I'm not going to publicize it with an update from this account. The only way to find out about it will be if you're signed up for my newsletter.

Seriously, I only ever send them when I have something new for sale, and sometimes I delay them so I can announce two things at once. The previous newsletter went out in May of last year, the one before that was December, 2014. Your inbox won't be barraged with emails if you sign up.

Do you mind if I skipped all that stuff above to read about new Twenty Palaces?

Only if you go back and read the other sections afterwards, please.

I'm announcing this here first, directly to you guys: After I send One Man to my agent, I plan to write The Twisted Path as a novella.

There are quite a few places that publish novellas now. I'm sure I can take the storyline originally designed for The Twisted Path and make it work at that length. Then I'd pass that on to my agent, too.

I dunno. Maybe it won't work. Maybe it won't sell. Maybe poor sales will hang around my neck like a millstone. But what the hell. There should be time between finishing One Man and selling it. I hope to use it productively. What will come of it, I can't say.

Is this the part where you thank us?

It sure is.

Thank you. I'm taking this very last opportunity to thank you all for your support. You made it possible for these books to exist, and your willingness to spread the word about them enables me to write my next book.

Go find a mirror, look at your reflection, and tell yourself you're great. Because you are.

Superbacker

Superbacker

I'm not good about keeping up with my email so I really appreciate a heads up about new Kickstarters as updates on ones I've previously backed. Please rethink your email list or you won't know about my future Kickstarters.

Superbacker

Ack! Max, I should have done more research. If I had, I would have delivered the supplements that way instead of through download links on my site.

Neil, thank you for the kind words. As for future updates, I don't like receiving updates about new Kickstarters so it would be uncool to send them. The best way to be up to date on my work is the newsletter. Honestly, I don't send many of them.

Superbacker

Excellent work with the game supplement. DriveThruRPG won't let me review it without buying it; a lot of gaming Kickstarters deliver PDFs via DriveThruRPG "buy it for free" coupons, but I don't know how much of a hassle it would be to generate those for backers at the correct level.

Harry,
I thoroughly enjoyed everything I received from you. Our (30YO) son was familiar with your work - and we bought him the e-series for Christmas. I also received some of your other works as gifts.